Pearson bolsters community college online offerings

By Jake New, Assistant Editor

September 12th, 2013

As community colleges in West Virginia are facing budget cuts of nearly 8 percent this year, one school is turning to the education and publishing giant Pearson for help in lowering costs and transitioning its courses online, the company announced this week.

Colleges have looked to online courses in cutting costs.

The partnership between Pearson and West Virginia University at Parkersburg, which offers community college programs and bachelor’s degrees, will transition all of the college’s online degree programs onto Pearson’s learning management system, called OpenClass.

Such a partnership would likely not have existed a decade ago, but arrangements like this are becoming common place for Pearson as it moves further away from its old identity as strictly a publishing company.

“People still view us as a textbook company, but were actually a learning company,” said David Daniels, president of integrated solutions at Pearson. “We do understand learning, curricula instruction, and most importantly online learning. Our expertise is way beyond textbooks.”

Pearson’s partnership with WVU Parkersburg will take advantage of several of Pearson’s products and services that run the gamut of online learning.

Students will connect with and learn from instructors through OpenClass, take courses through CourseConnect, access Pearson eTextbooks, get extra help with on-demand tutoring, and receive suggestions from the adaptive learning abilities of MyLab and Mastering.

See Page 2 for more details on how Pearson is moving into every corner of education.